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Matthew McKowen's avatar

I'm rather cautious here with strangers here in America, but I totally hitchhiked in Westport when hiking Croagh Patrick on March 17th, 2014. What a day!

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

I can imagine that was a very memorable St. Patricks day!

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Nicola Didsbury's avatar

Once in Corsica (a place I love wholeheartedly) we pulled into a small town for something to make lunch. The town was quiet, but there was a butcher shop. The shop owner had no English so I used my rusty French, and laughingly he told me all the words in Corsican. I’ll never forget the joy and laughter sharing these old words together.

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

That’s beautiful! I love how languages can bring us all together, no matter how much of each other’s languages we speak.

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Anthony Brooks-Sands's avatar

If they spoke Irish, I would get in, no problem 👍

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

Same, apparently. 😂

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April Halley's avatar

I took my mom to Ireland 10 years ago. While walking around Waterford City we met a lady who offered to drive us around the countryside. My mom was afraid she would rob us lol but we went along and it was lovely! We wouldn't have seen outside the city otherwise.

I would love to go to an Irish-speaking area.

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

That’s great! I’m glad you had that experience, I’m sure it was very special! Not only do I enjoy visiting Irish speaking areas as an Irish speaker, but they also tend to be some of the most beautiful places on earth. :)

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Robert A Mosher (he/him)'s avatar

Driving in the west of Ireland back in the 1980s I was impressed by the Americans and Irish of roughly university age backpacking and hitchhiking, glad to hear it’s still a thing.

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

In my case, it was rather unintentional hitchhiking. lol

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Anthony Brooks-Sands's avatar

Nice story ....😊

In Ireland I would not think twice, but I might be a little hesitant here though ......lol🇮🇪

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

I very much agree. Especially living in New York city… haha That said, I don’t know how I would react if they spoke Irish… 😂

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MacFinnian Aisling Fíodóir's avatar

I would have done exactly the same thing. Though it’s still good to be careful. There is something so different about the Irish, especially those that speak Gaeigle. It feels as if you’re stepping back in time to place where people were community and welcomed specific wanderers because they just knew you were truly one of them.

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Briana Ní Loingsigh's avatar

Absolutely. There were a lot of reasons it felt safe beyond the culture and language (I didn’t mention that there was a child in the car, plus we were three adults trusting a stranger in the middle of the day.) But it definitely felt like chatting with an old friend because of the language.

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